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Endeavour Trophy 2007 |
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Burnham-on-Crouch 6 - 7 October 2007 Our current National and British Open Champion Chris Gill represented the Europe Class at this year's Endeavour Trophy held at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Burnham-on-Crouch on the 6th & 7th. October. The event comprised five races on the Saturday and three on the Sunday, with only one discard. This year's Endeavour was sailed in Topper Xenons, supplied by Topper. All the 30 boats were brand new and all exactly the same the only things you could add were wind indicators and lots of sticky tape. Saturday's racing got underway early at 10.30 am and the fleet was greeted with a gentle easterly breeze which built to 14 knots as the day progressed. Chris Gill with his brother Jon as a crew scored a 15th in the first race but his placing improved as the day went on, with the team scoring a 6th, 9th, 4th and 3rd, to end the first day 5th overall. Overnight a certain pecking order was in place with overall standings of 1st Steve Tylecote, 2nd Nick Craig, 3rd Roger Gilbert, 4th Tom Jeffcoate. Sunday's racing was held under more variable conditions. Our Europe representatives scored a good result in the 6th race but due to the changing wind dropped back in the 7th race and Chris found himself battling through the fleet. With most of the top competitors very much up and down, it went to the last race of the competition to sort out a winner. For the final race the race area was changed and held in a river junction between the Crouch and the Roach, where the tide played havoc with the fleet over their short course. A windward mark incident left Chris having to do turns and slipping back to rear of the fleet. However by hugging the shore out of the tide Chris managed to claw his way up to mid fleet by the leeward mark and then gain more places upwind to 3rd position closing his overall position to 6th place overall. Overall Results 1st Steve Tylecote & Toby Lewis (Firefly) 2nd Roger Gilbert & James Stewart (Merlin Rocket) 3rd Nick Craig & Steve Dunn (OK) 4th Keith Escritt & Elane Marsh (Laser Vortex) 5th Tom Jeffcoate & Mark Hogan (Fireball) 6th Chris Gill & Jon Gill (Europe) 7th Dave Wade & Ben Ratner (Scorpion) 8th Andy Davis & Andy Thompson (Solo) 9th Graham Camm & Zoe Ballantyne (National 12) 10th Mike Saul & Sophie Hartley (RS500) See the Holt site for the full Endeavor report and results. Chris Gill GBR352 |
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